LeBron James' Return to Cleveland Illustrates the Importance of Personal Relationships in Financial Advising, According to Brian Ouellette of Pro Athlete Direct™

SEATTLE, Aug. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Pro Athlete Direct™, the company that connects financial advisors with professional athlete clients, thinks that advisors should take note of the recent news that basketball star LeBron James is returning home to play for the Cleveland Cavaliers.  For financial professionals who want to serve the pro athlete clientele, James' move reveals the premium that pro athletes place on personal relationships and security when it comes to making business decisions.

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"Everyone thinks that big-time pro athletes are well served by financial professionals – it's just an assumption people make," said Brian Ouellette, Co-Founder of Pro Athlete Direct. "Yet, you'd be surprised at the incomplete and poor service that some of most highly paid athletes receive. The pro athlete client needs the best that our industry can offer." 

According to Ouellette, professional athletes are usually so busy with training and traveling that they cannot pay adequate attention to their financial affairs.  As a result, they want to work with people they can trust while surrounding themselves with individuals who have their best interests in mind.  Ouellette saw this pattern at work with the LeBron James story, pointing out a recent article in ProBasketball news that stated, "Rich Paul [James' agent] reportedly wants to steer his client back to their native Ohio. But it's not just Paul. LeBron, an Akron native, has remained close with and employed several friends from home." 

Pro Athlete Direct offers financial professionals the unique ability to meet the agents who represent professional athletes.  "By approaching this client base counter to how 95 percent of the professionals out there approach them now, we enable the advisor to become a trusted member of the athlete's home team in the beginning of the relationship," said Ouellette. The company provides its members their proprietary Education Based Marketing System (EBMS™) while also providing their members access to a proprietary database of professional agents & their athlete clients.

Pro Athlete Direct has identified a distinct opportunity for financial advisors who are open to working with celebrity clients and want to take action today to dramatically increase their own market share and assets under management (AUM) by tapping into the underserved pro athlete client base.   

• Athletes earn significant money but need good, quality financial and real estate advice: Professional athletes earn an average of $1.6 million per year.
• Professional athletes tend to run into financial difficulty quickly:  With Sports Illustrated reporting that over 60 percent of pros athletes are broke within five years of leaving their sports careers, they need sound financial guidance.
• Athletes have a long retirement to plan for: This client base is retiring in their late 20s to early 30s.  Unlike the average client, who plans for 10 to 30 years of retirement, athletes have 40+ years of retirement to plan.
• Athletes provide referrals:  Due to the industry and the nature of the industry, this is the highest referral client base we are aware of.

Free Infographic, DNA Profile of the Pro Athlete Client

To learn what makes this niche client base a unique target audience for financial advisors and professionals who can help and are open to working with celebrity clients, download the free infographic, "DNA Profile Of The Ideal Client" that is available for a limited time at: www.proathletedirect.com/2014_infographic_limited_release

About Pro Athlete Direct: Pro Athlete Direct's consulting and coaching platform empowers attorneys, financial professionals and realtors to build lucrative client relationships with sports agents and pro athletes in over 20 professional sports leagues. 

Utilizing their proprietary Education Based Marketing System (EBMS™), Pro Athlete Direct members are viewed as an authority and trusted advisor in the beginning of the client relationship.  This is a distinction that gets agents reaching out to their members (not the other way around) to develop the relationship.

Founded by a former Wall Streeter/entrepreneur and veteran high-ticket sales consultant, the company has identified this unique, yet undeserved client base for select professionals who are looking to grow their practices quickly, while working within an exciting industry.

*Numbers are estimates only. Various sources sited, including: NY Times, Sports Illustrated, Sports Business Daily, Wikipedia & USAToday. The salaries do not include endorsement deals and/or other income from outside sources.

Media Contact: 
Brian Ouellette 
Co-Founder 
Pro Athlete Direct™ 
Phone: 877-979 7223 
www.twitter.com/sbrianouellette 
www.proathletedirect.com 
Email

SOURCE Pro Athlete Direct